Berning ZH-270 Replacement


Hi

I would value suggestions from anyone who has listened to the David Berning ZH-270 complete with the upgrades and who can advise on what integrateds if any they have heard that better it.

I am running Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage speakers with a subwoofer.

Advice and recommendations welcome

Thanks
Barry
bpinder
Hi Pubul57

The Berning has enough power at normal to resonable listening levels but if one starts to push it to anything more it starts to strain slightly.

As far as impedence of the Guarneris go I am not really sure to be honest as there are very conflicting specs.

Thanks
Barry
bpinder, why don't you contact Sonus Faber and see what they say, I don't know how much input Franco has anymore but he still owns a ZH-270 and the first introduction of the Stradivarius was done using the modest ZH-270, I think it was Fremer what visited Franco, look up the stereophile review.

It surprises me that the ZH-270 is strained at higher levels, have you played with the volume control.
There are several reasons why I am surprised but one mostly is that the ZH-270 does not act like most amps when pushed, because of the sophisticated auto bias, it senses when it's close to clipping and reduces power to the amp, this happens at a super fast rate up to thousands of times a second, so all that might be perceived is a slight reduction in dynamics.

One way to tell if you're reached close to output power is keep turning the amp up, it should react with very little difference in perceived volume, if there is a volume increase then it's elsewhere in your system.

These amps are used by so many manufacturers for designing it will surprise you, including the speakers mentioned here by jwmazar Chris Sommovigo's Stereolabs, what makes these amps great for this, is what makes it unforgiving for the average audiophile, they are not filters which is a limit of the typical design constraints, get it all right or this amp is going to tell the story.
Hi Allan

Thanks for the helpful response. Yes I was aware that Sonus Faber used the ZH-270 and that was actually the main reason I went for it and I really have no problems with it from either a sonic performance or reliablility point of view, in fact it really does have a very nice synergy with the Guarneris.

The reason for my post was I guess it is a case of is the grass greener on the other side and with the passing of time I was testing opinions on other possible newer options.

Also with the Berning not having a pre out connection I suspect I am not getting optimum performance from my powered subwoofer having to drive it piggy backed on the normal speaker outlet terminals. This is the option least prefered by the subwoofer manufacturer, they recommend the pre out connection to RCA in on the Sub but maybee I will just have to live with that compromise.

Do you know why Franco chose the ZH-270 ?

Cheers
Barry
Ever thought of just breaking down and going with an active pre!
the other option is we can talk you through a resistor/divider network design, that would drop the gain say 20-30db and sum both channels, then you can run that to the low level of the sub input.